|
Brenda Blethyn channels Gypsy's stagestruck Mama Rose in Introducing the Dwights, giving a brassy, collar-grabbing performance as a moonlighting Australian comedienne who toils by day as a kitchen worker but always finds time to commandeer her kids' lives.
In this instance, Blethyn's Jean has no interest in sharing the limelight with her teenage son Tim (Khan Chittenden), or his winsome brain-damaged younger brother Mark (Richard Wilson, pushing adorability to the limit). But her controlling mother-love leaves its scars: Tim is too steamrolled by his mother's raucous joie de vivre to know how to communicate effectively with women his age, while Mark is kept hidden from public exposure, ostensibly for his own protection. Every so often, the boys' has-been musician dad (Frankie J. Holden) blows in to reassert his displaced role in their affections.
© Newsday
